One Man's Junk Is Another's Marvel

By David Kestenbaum

Published September 29, 2004 at 9:00 PM PDT

Jim Williams is fascinated by engineering feats most of us take for granted.

Animal lovers who walk through pet stores sometimes have to fight the urge to adopt every cat and dog. Other people have the same feeling when they see abandoned pieces of electronics. NPR's David Kestenbaum spends a day with Jim Williams, an electrical engineer who lives in Silicon Valley. Like many engineers, Williams cherishes what many of us choose to ignore -- the inner workings of modern machines.

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David Kestenbaum

David Kestenbaum is a correspondent for NPR, covering science, energy issues and, most recently, the global economy for NPR's multimedia project Planet Money. David has been a science correspondent for NPR since 1999. He came to journalism the usual way — by getting a Ph.D. in physics first.

See stories by David Kestenbaum